


to cleaning up our own damn messes

by shieldivarius



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alcohol, Canon Divergent, Gen, Girls' Night Out (but not), Out for Cocktails, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-21 22:52:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1566959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shieldivarius/pseuds/shieldivarius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Anyone who didn’t think the best thing about Stark Industries was its CEO was a raging, unrepentant misogynist, end of story.</i><br/> </p><p>They were privatizing global security. That took more than a handful of people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	to cleaning up our own damn messes

Anyone who didn’t think the best thing about Stark Industries was its CEO was a raging, unrepentant misogynist, end of story.

That was the first thing that crossed Maria Hill’s mind when Pepper opened their weekly lunch meeting with _“I’m expanding the payroll in your department. Whoever you want to bring on from S.H.I.E.L.D., you have my blessing.”_

“I assume lower level agents who weren’t associated with HYDRA will find it easier to lock down positions elsewhere, but your high ranking officers have Stark Industries’ assistance, if they’ll accept it,” Pepper continued saying, while Maria tried to wrap her mind around the ridiculous expenses to S.I. she was willing to incur in legal fees to protect people she’d never even met. People who she would take in on Maria’s word, no questions asked.

“I’ll need to get an outline of the strengths of the people you’d like to bring on, of course,” Pepper continued. There was a smile on her face, one that said _‘I know you can’t find the words right now so I’ll keep talking until you can.’_ “And then I’ll draw up contracts.”

“Pepper, you—“ Maria shook her head and put her fingers to her eyes. “Thank you. There are a lot of good people whose worlds just imploded and…” she trailed off. “But I know you have to appease the board. I need to know my limit.”

“I can handle the board.”

“No. No, I know how this works.”

Pepper glared at her. Pepper glared at her and Maria returned it with a cool expression, one that said _‘Thank you but I’m not pulling you down with us’_ until Pepper sighed and nodded.

“I’ll have the paperwork drawn up. Now, about that breach in Sector 7 on Monday…”

 

In the end there were three women Maria could immediately identify as needing whatever help Stark Industries could offer, and even if Pepper had said S.I. could dedicate more funds than for three new employees, Maria thought they should start small. 

One wouldn’t accept, but would be amused by the offer and pretend to entertain it, since Maria had to go to the trouble of tracking her down to extend the invitation.

One would be sceptical and wonder why Maria had thought of her. Maria thought she would accept. She had medical bills to pay and would enjoy the parameters of the job they were offering.

The third had either ignored her previous, off-the-cuff offer out of hand or had thought she was joking—Maria wasn’t sure which. She could go either way.

It wasn’t necessarily fair of Maria and Pepper to try and tip the scales in their favour by presenting the contracts over cocktails on Stark Industries’ dime, but fairness had gone out the window a long time ago. And while Maria questioned her _own_ moral compass sometimes, it had been _Pepper’s_ suggestion that they meet over cocktails instead of lunch or dinner. 

Of course, Pepper might have been thinking along different lines than drawing potential employees in by lowering their guard with alcohol. Maria didn’t have any such moral scruples. That probably came from working for S.H.I.E.L.D. for too long.

Then again, Maria hadn’t missed that Pepper had brought the drawn-up contracts along with her. She pretended to be a lot less sly than she was. 

“They’re late,” Pepper commented, glancing at her watch. 

“Not quite.” It was five minutes to the time they’d set. “May, Hand and then Romanoff. They’ll show up in that order.”

Pepper raised an eyebrow and waved off the server who approached to try and take early orders. Maria elaborated. “May will be punctual, she has no reason not to be. Hand normally would be but I figure she’s moving a bit slower right now. Romanoff is already here, at the café across the street, and waiting to make sure we didn’t invite anyone we didn’t tell her about.”

Pepper smiled and took a sip of her water. 

Sure enough, Melinda May followed a hostess to their table less than ten minutes later. She shook Pepper’s hand and introduced herself before taking a seat at the table.

“So, burning question,” Maria said. “Did you think I was joking when I asked you if you wanted to join?”

May remained expressionless and flagged their server down for a glass of water. “Let’s wait until everyone’s here to broach that topic.”

Maria quirked her lips and an eyebrow and gave a bit of a tilt of her head in a ‘sure’ gesture. She didn’t expect Melinda May to jump at moving into the private sector, but at least she didn’t seem absolutely against the idea.

As Maria had predicted, Victoria Hand was the next to arrive, standing head and shoulders taller than the hostess who lead her across the lounge. Her face drawn and pale, she looked sick and like she should have still been resting in bed instead of meeting for drinks with ex-colleagues at 2200. But she held herself straight, and despite a grimace when she lowered herself into one of the seats at the table her expression was just as no-nonsense as when Maria had last seen her. 

“Victoria Hand,” she said, reaching across the table to shake hands with Pepper, who introduced herself in kind. “I apologise for being late,” Hand continued, with barely a glance at the still-empty chair between herself and Pepper. There was a bit of a hitch to her speech. “A still-healing perforated lung makes stairs a thrilling exercise.”

She eyed the drink menu in front of her, turning it from the side with wine and beer to the cocktail list. 

“Should you be drinking?” May asked. She sounded indifferent, but she looked concerned.

“Probably not,” Hand said, then flagged their server down. “I’ll have a gin martini.”

“Are you still waiting on someone else?” 

“She’ll be twenty minutes or so,” Maria said, and they went around the table and placed orders. 

Maria was halfway through a second Manhattan and nearly finished a rant about Congress and the shitty mantle Nick Fury had left her when he’d “died” when Natasha Romanoff finally waltzed through the door. 

“…And every meeting inevitably circles back around to Project Insight and Captain Rogers, like I have time to keep tabs on him on top of everything else.”

“I know where Rogers is,” Romanoff said as she slipped into the empty seat at the table. 

“Nice of you to join us,” Hand said. 

“Don’t tell me,” Maria said. “Because if you tell me, I have to tell Congress.”

Romanoff smiled. “My flight was delayed,” she said, addressing Hand, whose lips pursed into a thoroughly unimpressed look at the lie. 

Pepper set her mostly-empty drink down on the table. She’d ordered a cosmopolitan, and Maria was 95% sure it was more to keep up the public image she’d cultivated than because it was what she’d wanted to drink. “Shall we?” she asked.

Romanoff ordered quietly while Pepper started outlining the recruitment pitch Maria had helped her develop. At about the midway point, with all three wearing various expressions of blank scepticism, Maria started to worry. She knew she couldn’t save everyone, it was _impossible_ , but helping whoever she could, reaching out where she could, that was all that Maria wanted to do.

Nick Fury had left her to pick up all of the pieces of the fallen S.H.I.E.L.D. and _dammit_ she was going to pick up as many as she could.

Pepper dug in her briefcase and pulled out a thick folder, which she divided into three and handed around the table. Each contract had a different name printed on the top of it. 

“Thank you, Maria; Pepper,” Natasha said when Pepper was done, and she sounded genuine. “But I’m not in the market for a new job right now.” She handed the contract back without looking at it. 

May had started reading through the first page, and Hand had accepted it, held it in front of her, but was looking between Pepper and Maria instead of starting to read it. She was also on her third martini, and who-knew what kind of painkillers, so Maria wasn’t sure how well her brain was firing.

“Why?” she finally asked. 

“Why you, you mean?” Maria returned. Hand made a small motion with her eyebrows that meant yes. “Because you’re the only Level 8 Officer I could count on not being HYDRA, and you nearly died in the collapse. I figured you were among the number who deserved help, Victoria.”

Hand narrowed her eyes a little, and Maria noticed her gaze cut from Maria to May and then to Romanoff and Pepper before she nodded. Maria suspected she was swallowing a comment about Coulson, and was grateful she hadn’t tried to go there. _That_ was a circumstance she didn’t look forward to trying to deal with.

“What are your plans?” May asked after Hand had started reading her contract. 

“My immediate concern is snatching up S.H.I.E.L.D.’s high-ranking, non-HYDRA agents before Stark Industries competitors can,” Pepper said. “Having worked alongside S.H.I.E.L.D. before and having the Avengers homed in one of our properties makes Stark Industries uniquely qualified to fill the void left in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s collapse.”

_‘Bless you Pepper Potts,’_ Maria thought. “Things like the Chitauri, like Loki and Asgardians. They’re not going to stop coming just because S.H.I.E.L.D. fell to internal corruption. We’re more vulnerable now than we were,” Maria said. “And we have to be ready for someone to try and take advantage of that. The Avengers aren’t enough.”

Romanoff made a noise at that and Maria couldn’t decide if it was agreement or disbelief.

“We need tacticians. We need soldiers. We need S.H.I.E.L.D.’s best,” Pepper said. 

“You’re trying to build the Avengers a ground crew,” Natasha said after a moment. Hand and May continued reading their contracts. Pepper ordered everyone another drink.

Maria nodded. “Inspired by you, in part.” Natasha tilted her head, long straight hair sliding off her shoulder, and Maria elaborated. “I watched your hearing, after the collapse of the Triskelion.”

“The world is a vulnerable place,” Natasha murmured, parroting herself.

“S.H.I.E.L.D. did some things it shouldn’t have, in the name of peace.”

“Stark’s not a fan of secrets. He’ll want to know everything, every step of the way.”

“That why you’re not signing up?” Maria asked.

“I’m already signed up.” Natasha rose and pushed away from the table. The arrow pendant around her neck caught the light and sparkled. “I look forward to working with you two, in the field again.” She said with a nod to Hand and May. Then she turned and left, just as their server returned to set down fresh drinks. 

“Was she part of your pitch?” Melinda asked, reaching across the table and picking up the pen Pepper had pulled out when she’d presented the contracts. 

“Not a planned part,” Maria said, downing the rest of her drink and starting in on the new one. 

“Transparency could do all of us good,” Hand said. “But I’m having my lawyer look over this before I sign it.” 

“All aspects are negotiable,” Pepper said. “I promise transparency. You’ll report to Maria, who reports directly to me. You’ll find a fair bit more room to move than S.H.I.E.L.D. gave you, I’m sure.”

“And a whole lot less HYDRA,” Maria said. 

Melinda lifted her glass. “I will toast to that,” she said. 

“To cleaning up our own damn messes,” Maria said. 

“And ones other people caused seventy years ago,” Hand added. 

“And to Stark Industries and its fantastic CEO,” Melinda added with a smile. Glancing over, Maria could see she’d already initialled next to at least three paragraphs on the contract.

“To the Avengers,” Pepper added. “A mess in themselves.”

They clinked their glasses together. 

After all, Natasha had been right. The world was a vulnerable place, but those who were already aware of it, those who had been fighting for it all along, they didn’t belong in a penitentiary. Not when they were the most qualified to continue defending it.

**Author's Note:**

> http://shieldivarius.tumblr.com


End file.
